Top scorer World Cup 2018 best betting odds

8th June 2018 / lee

Each of the nations heading to the 2018 World Cup will be reliant on one side to get the goals to drive them towards success. We are talking about that one special striker that most teams have, who will be carrying the weight of that particular nation’s goalscoring hopes. For example, even though Brazil are stacked with attacking talent their main goal scoring hope will be the prolific Neymar.

England’s hopes will be resting with Harry Kane and France will be looking towards their star striker Antoine Griezmann to deliver the goods for them. Some nations, notably Uruguay, are lucky enough to be blessed with two world-class strikers as the South Americans will be able to field both Edinson Cavani and Suarez at 2018 World Cup. But most of the rest of the nations will be looking towards supplying one man to give them the goals.

World Cup Top Goalscorer Market

The talent that is abound in the top scorer World Cup 2018 betting market is staggering. Leading the way is Argentina’s Lionel Messi who is the 9/1 odds favourite* (Betting Odds taken at 8:17 p.m. on June 4th, 2018) to be the top scorer at the tournament. Messi had a brilliant season and he finished with more goals than anyone else across the top five European domestic leagues and the Albiceleste will be hoping that he carries that form over into the 2018 World Cup.

Is fair to say a man of Messi’s calibre would be a fitting winner of the World Cup golden boot. Four years ago as Argentina got to the final the 2014 World Cup, Lionel Messi scored four goals along the way but he couldn’t lift them past Germany in the World Cup final. Argentina scored just two goals in their four knockout stage matches including the final and with Argentina being a low scoring side during qualification for the 2018 edition, punters may naturally be hesitant about Messi getting enough goals on the board. But this is one of the legends of the game we are talking about and if anybody can produce those individual moments of brilliance, then it is him.

Neymar to challenge

Brazil’s Neymar also got four goals on the board the 2014 World Cup, but the tournament was cut short because of injury. He has just come back from injury ahead of the tournament for the summer and whereas Brazil were totally reliant upon him four years ago, they are more of a well rounded side this time around. So even though Neymar’s strike rate is brilliant for the Selecao we are more likely to see a bigger team effort in terms of goal output from Brazil during the summer instead of just the one focal point of Neymar. So it will be interesting to see if that approach benefits Neymar in terms of other players taking pressure off him so he can have more space, or whether their share of goals will detract from him finishing with the Golden Boot.

Germany’s goalscoring threats will be coming from Thomas Muller who has consistently performed at World Cups, but the bookmakers think that this time around he is going to be outdone by young Timo Werner who is 16/1 odds* (Betting Odds taken at 8:17 p.m. on June 4th, 2018) to finish the tournament as top goalscorer and who will have plenty of appeal for punters to do so. Also around that same price is England’s Harry Kane and Brazil’s Gabriel Jesus. Going back to what we said about Brazil being a stronger collective this time, Jesus may well get well in among the goals.

Harry Kane interest

The grey area over Harry Kane and his chances of finishing with the 2018 Golden Boot is whether or not England are going to go deep enough into the tournament to give him enough games to get those goals. The same can be said of other top quality goalscorers from across the world, like Robert Lewandowski, Romelu Lukaku and even Cristiano Ronaldo as Poland and Portugal respectively are not expected to go too far in the tournament either. History of the World Cup top goalscorer winners does lean towards it being a player who at least gets six games under his belt at the tournament. Remember it only takes seven games to win World Cup.

So going back to look at the leaders in the top scorer 2018 World Cup market, France’s main man Antoine Griezmann makes for an interesting proposition. He once again produced some very strong form for his club Atletico Madrid lifting them to the Europa League title. He has the finishing touch without question and he has a very creative midfield and attacking core of players around him to get his chances. With France being a strong contender to win World Cup summer Griezmann looks likely to be well in the picture to finish as top goalscorer.

Given the amount of talent that is around, it looks likely to be another hotly contested race to finish as the top goalscorer at the 2018 World Cup. Four years ago there was a surprise winner as Colombia’s James Rodriguez banked a six-goal haul to walk off with the individual award in just five games. So it is a market where underdogs can certainly have their day, more so than in the World Cup outright winner market itself.

So don’t be too afraid of those longer priced options in the bet365 World Cup 2018 top goalscorer market and don’t forget to use each way options. The each way terms in the World Cup top goalscorer market (at most bookmakers) will be four places at 1/4 odds.

The tip is based on the personal opinion of the author. No success is guaranteed. Please gamble responsibly. 18+

* All mentioned odds were valid at the time of writing. Betting odds are subject to fluctuations. Please check the current odds with the respective bookmaker!